


Half of my Heart (got a grip on this situation)

by this_is_too_fyuckking_much



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: ? - Freeform, Alternate Universe - The Sound of Music Fusion, F/M, Harry delivers telegrams, Homeschool vs. Regular school, Louis is homeschooled, Louis is rich, M/M, No Smut, i rly dont know tags honestly, then not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-09-17 22:29:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9349112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/this_is_too_fyuckking_much/pseuds/this_is_too_fyuckking_much
Summary: - Louis is the eldest in the Tomlinson family. He lives with his six sisters, rich stepfather (Mark Tomlinson) and (who’s recently gotten over the death of his former spouse, currently dating), Amelia Myers. He is closeted.- Harry is the baker in his mother's store. This store has the main telegraph of the town and they have a group of employees to deliver these telegrams. He is out to his mother and anyone who inquires into it but will not bring it up on his own.They meet with a bang (ha) and fall in love.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic. Idk how it is. Comments would be appreciated, I guess? :)

Louis is making his normal walk to the grocery shop. He usually comes here early in the morning but it’s nice to be able to do it in the afternoon. The sun is nice and even though there’s a cold breeze, it’s almost winter, not that big of a problem. Louis just threw his coat over his home wear (a suit, he barely has anything else to wear because of his father). _It is a very nice day_ he thinks on a more perceptive note. It’s sunny yet not hot, and not freezing either. He kicks his shoes through piles of leaves and dirt, not bothering about what his maid’ll say. He hears a faint ringing and turns to see someone on a bicycle. As they get closer Louis tries to identify him as someone in the town but he seems to be a stranger. He’s very cute. With curly dark brown hair and a light brown sweater. _He’s looking at me,_ Louis thinks and flashes him a quick smile to avoid awkward tension. The boy seems a bit thrown off from Louis and keeps staring at him. _God, his eyes,_ Louis thinks. His thoughts are cut short when a bang sounds through the air. The cute bike boy’s banged into a pole. The idiot.   
______________________________________________________________  
Harry wakes up to quite a sight. _This isn’t what he thought heaven would be…_. oh wait, this is the guy Harry was too busy ogling at to see the damn pole he banged into. Right. He’s saying something….  
“Oh my goodness, you’re alive. Can you hear me?” His accent is very nice,  
“You have a pretty voice..” Harry mumbles before squeezing his eyes shut and opening them again to refocus himself. He sits up slowly, slightly aware of the soft hand assisting his back and looks at the handsome stranger again. He’s got a slight dusting of colour on his tan skin and is wearing a coat over a suit.  
“Who are you?” Harry asked, a bit dazed from the looks of the stranger and the collision that had occurred.  
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Harry said quickly, restating himself,  
“My name is Harry, Harry Styles.” He held his hand out,  
“What’s yours?” Harry asked, looking up a bit hopefully to look at the boy again. He put on a cheeky smile and clasped Harry’s hand in his.  
“Louis Tomlinson.” _Tomlinson_ , Harry thought, that explains the suit. He’s in the fancy family that lives down the lane with the fancy gate. They’ve got a lot of telegrams that need delivering.  
“Oh!” Harry says again, the telegrams! He has to get back to delivering them. No matter how cute this rich boy is, he mustn’t sway from his intentions.  
“I’m very sorry to go so soon,” and truly, he is “I need to get back to delivering all these.” He gestures to the postbag he was carrying filled with telegrams.  
“Are those all the telegrams? You’re related to Anne in the store?” Louis asks, Harry nods,  
“Yeah, she’s my mum. She’s out now and I really need to deliver these.”  
“I’ll come with you.” Louis says immediately. Harry shakes his head,  
“That’s awfully kind of you, but it’s a lot of work and I don’t want to cause any kind of-”  
“Harold,” Louis cuts in, Harry’s cheeks fuzz a bit at the new nickname,  
“I’m supposed to be getting groceries. If Anne isn’t there and you’re delivering telegrams, I can’t get groceries. So I’ll just help you so we can get back to the store and I can make my purchase.” Louis smiles at Harry and takes a loose piece of paper hanging from his bag.  
“So the first place you’re going to is Mr. Georges estate?” Harry nods, a bit taken back at his stubborn yet comprehensible plan.  
“Then let’s go, we can talk while we walk.” Harry gets up and looks around. Finding his bicycle in the rose bushes. He’ll need to check for punctures. Not now, he’ll just have to walk.  
“Mrs. Finch won’t worry about her roses. Although her maid does take some sort of pride in them. You won’t get blamed. Let’s go!” Louis says skipping forward leaving a smiling Harry carting a bike following him.  
______________________________________________________________  
“So, care to tell me why all the telegrams are only get delivered now?” Louis says after a few minutes of silent walking. Harry sighs with relief over choosing something to talk about.  
“Well,” Harry starts, “My mum has the telegram in her store, and usually we have people that deliver these but recently one of them didn’t turn up. Even though he came a few minutes late, my mum had the epiphany that they hadn’t had a holiday yet. So she called me back from the South, where I go to school, and now I gotta take care of a week full of telegrams.” Louis nods,  
“Hm, how’s schooling in the South? Do you think it’ll take a toll on you? Coming back here early?” Harry shakes his head,  
“Nah, it’s really fine. All the important projects are done by now. I was going to do some extra stuff, I don’t need to though. The real things come next year.” There’s a lull in the conversation and Harry hurries to fill it, enthusiastic about learning more about the rich boy,  
“What about you?” He asks, Louis laughs,  
“I wish I could go to school. I take tests set by the country and get homeschooling from Miss Travis. She’s nice and all but… the only other people in ‘class’ are my younger sisters and they can’t exactly provide a sufficient illusion.” Harry chuckles along with him,  
“Hm, some things you’ll be glad to be without. Like if you walk into class there’s always….” Harry continues ranting about the awful things in school. Louis counters each of his ideas with an awful things that homeschooling brings and by the time they’ve concluded that both suck (and they bond over the fact that the tests are stressful as hell “I’m still waiting on my exam results in the mail, you get that as well at your shops don’t you Harold? Let me know first, I need to see it before me dad”), onto the next subject of why Louis never sees Harry at the store (Harry only comes every second weekend and Louis doesn’t get weekends off), then they move on to if cold weather is good or bad (Louis loves warm weather, Harry hates it, “My dear Harold, if you had to wear bloody suits to keep up your father’s reputation, you’d be very happy when you had a reason not to.”). They have such a good time talking and getting to know each other in fact,k that Harry is a bit sad when the last of the telegrams are gone.  
“I still need to get groceries, Harold.” Louis laughs when they’re walking down Dr. Millards driveway. Harry laughs, and picks the bike up off the sidewalk to stroll it on the outside of them.  
“Good thing Dr. Millards house isn’t far.” Harry says,  
“Bad thing, I spent all day yammering on with you, me dad’s gonna be quite annoyed I’m not home yet.” Harry immediately feels bad,  
“Oh I’m so sorry, I didn’t know you needed to get home, I’m so stupid for not realising it. I can take the stuff to your house.” He fiddles around for his notepad, “What do you need, I can get it for you and-”  
“Harry!” Louis says louder, Harry stops and realises that he’s been saying his name for a while,  
“Yes?” He says, Louis rolls his eyes,  
“As happy it would be for you to do that, there’s not much I can do now. And turning up without the groceries will only turn him mad instead of annoyed.” Harry almost smacks himself for not thinking of that and nods quickly before speeding up a bit to get to the store faster.  
______________________________________________________________   
“I swear this place changes every time I walk in…” Louis says with wonder and Harry smiles,  
“Whenever I come over, I restyle it a bit. My mum also wants to ‘keep the public entertained’ as if we’re some sort of circus act.” Louis smirks,  
“I don’t know, my sisters say that they saw a juggler out front one day.” Harry blushes,  
“Yeah, that was me…” Harry says, gesturing to the shelves for Louis as he settles behind the counter.  
“You can juggle?” Louis says astoundingly before going to his pocket to pull out the once-forgotten list. Harry nods, even though Louis can’t see him,  
“Yeah, I took it up when I was small and I guess I just kept practicing it with fruit and stuff so I got quite good.” Louis turns up in seconds with things falling out of his arms. Harry stands up,  
“Here, I’ll help..” He says and takes a carton of eggs about to fall and a small bag of ginger. Louis plonks the rest of the things on the counter and Harry goes to bag them. While he is bagging them, he feels Louis’ eyes on him. He starts to smile to himself, biting his lip to stop. He finishes the last item and looks up. Almost breathless with the seemingly lighter state Louis’ eyes are in at the moment.  
“Thank you.” Louis says and takes the bag, quickly exchanging it with money. Snapping Harry out of his staring and making him blink twice. Louis giggles laughs and continues,  
“Well, this was fun,Styles. I’m excited to be getting telegrams delivered by you.” Harry chuckles and nods, digging around in his pocket to give Louis the telegrams for his house.  
“Noted,” Harry smiles. Louis awkwardly shuffles backwards,  
“Bye..” He says, waving slightly. Harry waves back and mouths a small ‘goodbye’. The bell on the door jingles. Signalling that Louis’ walked out and Harry turns to lean backwards against the counter. Harry already knows that he’s gay, it’s no secret. Even to his mother, who probably knew before he did. But the sudden consciousness of swooning over a guy hits him like a brick and he’s thinking over the day he just spent with Louis. He was just so easy to talk to. And he was very witty and funny and just…..ugh. Harry sighs and wipes his eyes, looking at the clock. He’s gonna need to close up, it’s already dark. When he gets home his thoughts are occupied by a certain rich boy that lives at the end of a fancy lane.  
______________________________________________________________   
Louis walks home from the store in the quiet night. Which is odd right now because only a few seconds ago, he was talking his head off with Harry. A sudden silence seems out of place, however many times Louis has sat in silence, this is different. His thoughts drift back to Harry and how it’d been an amazing day with him. _Really amazing…_ Louis thinks, nodding to the guard at the gate before walking in and up the path. He opens the door and walks in.  
“Louis!” He hears Lottie say and run up to him,”Where on earth were you?” Louis brushed her off softly,  
“Nowhere, I was getting the groceries and our telegrams.” His father walked in,  
“There you are, Louis! You found our telegrams?” Louis nodded and handed them over. His father put them on the table,  
“I’ll see to them, in the morning.” Louis nodded,  
“Are you alright Louis?” His father asked, “You seem a bit preoccupied?” Louis just smiled,  
“It’s nothing, I’m tired. I’m going to bed.” He bid his father and sister goodnight before walking up to his bed. He was preoccupied. With something that you would be surprised he hadn’t thought about yet. He hadn’t been around many kids his age, mostly his sisters and grown-ups that were at his father’s parties. So there hadn’t been a lot of experience with people that he might be interested in. He knew that the general default gender he was supposed to like were girls. The neatly pressed gentleman like his father that went to fancy parties brought women along, not other men. He’d seen the men kiss women on tv and in real life. He should want to kiss a girl of his own…. But he wants Harry. It’s very odd indeed. Dinner goes by in a flash (partly because he missed it while out with Harry) and when he goes to bed he is stuck. He’s got a crush on Harry. This can’t be good, not only because he’s almost 18 and he’s got a ruddy crush, also because it’s a guy. He can’t like guys, his parents have probably chosen a girl for him already. If he likes guys, they’ll be all this fuss over ‘what do we do now?’ and they’ll need to break it to the girl and Louis can’t have all this happen. _But Harry was so cute and nice and stuttering always and…_. Louis can’t seem to hate him or get him out of his head. The twist in his stomach when he thinks about Harry is different from nerves, it’s quite exhilarating to be honest. With all this going on in his head Louis wonders how on earth, he got to sleep.  
______________________________________________________________   
Harry turns up at the Tomlinson estate with both mail and a telegram. He’s let in. He goes to the front door and hands the telegram to the butler. Keeping the mail. He goes back around the house and to the window that was pointed out to him by a certain boy, he takes one of the small rocks he brought and chucks it at the window. It clinks lightly, there’s no movement. Harry throws a rock again and there’s someone at the window. He sees Louis mouth, _what are you doing here?_ but he can see a smile on his face. He gestures for Louis to come down, then sees him start to climb out the window,  
“Louis, what are you-?”  
“Sh!” He says and gets onto the roof of the house that’s slanted downwards from his window. Harry races up and stands underneath him in case he falls. Louis chuckles at that, _how nice of him to be so worried_. And slides a bit, causing Harry to start and anchor his feet.  
“Don’t worry, Haz.” Louis says and grabs a strut from the corner of the roof and swings down. Landing on his feet,  
“Ta-da!” He says and Harry shakes his head,  
“That’s dangerous.”  
“So is sneaking into private property to talk to me. I’m flattered.” Louis says right back, almost blushing himself when he sees Harry doing it. They stand in semi-peaceful silence for a beat before Harry clears his throat and holds out an envelope.   
“You told me that you wanted you to see your state test results first before your dad did so… I got them here and-” Harry can’t finish his lame-not-practiced-speech because Louis launched himself at Harry, hugging him with his arms around his neck. Harry awkwardly places his hands on Louis lower torso and hugs back a bit. Louis so warm, the night was quite brisk and chilly and hugging Louis almost got rid of everything. Louis pulls away quickly though and lightly takes the envelope.   
“Thank you so much, Harry. You’ve no idea how much this means.” Harry nods,  
“I probably don’t…. at school, tests are something you get almost every week.” Louis eyes widen,  
“Really?!” Harry nods,  
“Yeah, it’s completely crazy if you ask m-” He looks up when someone knocks loudly on Louis door. Louis jumps,  
“I gotta go, and you do too. Thank you so much for the results Haz.” He falters in turning to climb back up and leans forward a bit, giving Harry a small peck on the cheek, and then climbing back to his room. Louis really couldn’t help it this time, he feels like an idiot for doing that but when he turns around he sees Harry staring at him dreamily and rubbing his forefingers over his cheek. He notices that Louis’ looking at him and blinks, shaking his head a bit and waving awkwardly. Tripping on his way to get his bike. Louis laughs, watching him go before another knock on his door startles him. He opens it,  
“Louis, jeez, how long does it take to open a door? Anyway, have you seen my computer?” Lottie asks, Louis shakes his head,  
“No, but Phoebe usually sneaks it into her room. She knows your password.”  
“What!?” Lottie says and races down the hall. Louis rolls his eyes and closes his door. Sitting back at his desk to try and do his work with the feeling of Harry’s cheek on his lips still running through his mind. This problem is not going away anytime soon…  
______________________________________________________________  
Harry’s been thinking about the kiss on the cheek for way too long. Bagging groceries used to be an easy, rhythmic task that he could do with his eyes practically closed. Now he’s having to snap back to reality every few seconds with the thought of Louis lips on his cheek. _I wonder how his results went…_. Harry thinks, _I should check up on him today, make sure that everything’s alright_. Harry knew that he was ignoring the sore excuse to see Louis again but he didn’t care. If he has a reason, he has a reason and he can go back and see Louis.  
 _Whatthefuckwasithinkingohmygodthisisaterribleidealouisgonnabeeitherpissedorthinkimastalkerthisisawful_. Harry’s thoughts whizz through his head right after he throws the first rock at Louis window. There’s movement immediately and a confused Louis at the window. Harry’s frozen but relaxes a bit when Louis’ face breaks out into a smile and he starts climbing down. Harry still goes to stand under him and when he swings down, greeting Harry. Harry almost forgets that he’s got something to say,  
“Are you alright, Haz?” Louis asks after Harry stares for a few seconds,  
“What? Oh no nothing it’s just…” Harry gestures to Louis face,  
“Glasses.” He finishes. Louis had dropped down from his room with a new change in his look. Some simple black rimmed glasses were on the bridge of his nose. Harry sees something like a blush for a few seconds before Louis hand reaches up to push his glasses further.  
“Well, yeah, I didn’t get the best eyesight. That’s probably from me mum…” He says, the looks back up, leaving the glasses alone,  
“So? Is there a particular reason that you decided to visit me? Or am I just that amazing?” Louis smiles brightly and Harry chuckles _You have no idea.._ Harry thinks,  
“Well, I was just wondering about how it went with your dad the other day? And the results? You don’t need to tell me if you don’t want I just- I think- I know that sometimes it’s a bit….” Harry stops after he thinks that he’s looking a bit stupid. Louis just laughs though,  
“I appreciate the sympathy, it was okay, I guess. He wasn’t marvelling at the scores… I guess he just didn’t expect me to do better on the other tests and wasn’t incredible at that bloody statistics one…” Louis scowls, Harry shrugs,  
“I’ve never liked stats class either, my teacher was awful.” Louis leans against the wall of the house, being all casual and subtly trying to get into a more flirty stance.  
“How so?” Harry sighs,  
“Well you know, well you probably don’t, but most of the teachers in general are-” and they were talking again. They had just moved onto the topic of their families (from Louis talking about how his sisters are always put first when it comes to schooling and then he’s expected to have learnt way more than he has) when it starts to rain. It started out as just a few drizzles on Harry’s shoulder, whilst a large drop falling on Louis’ head was entertaining, it did start raining quite hard only moments afterwards so they fled quickly to the gazebo. Louis almost fell off the seat from laughing too hard when he realised how late it was,  
“Shoot, I’d better get back.” Louis said, staring at the rain.  
“Yeah…” Harry said,  
“I’ll need to sprint, and you’ve gotta get your bike.” He says. Harry smiles,  
“We’ll both sprint then,” Louis smiled, quickly pressing a kiss to Harry’s cheek again before turning around quickly and rushing out of the gazebo to the house. Harry stares after Louis for a few seconds, in shock with a feeling of deja vu, when a clap of thunder broke him out of his thoughts. He smiles widely to himself and runs out to get his bike and rushes home. He’s definitely gonna be doing this way more now.  
______________________________________________________________  
Harry couldn’t be more content than how he is now. It’s been at least a month since he met Louis. And he honestly doesn’t think anything better could have happened in his life. They’re leaning against each other underneath the gazebo. (Their main meeting point) Harry’s retelling a story of him and his friend Niall at his school. Harry doesn’t know if Louis’ heard it before, he doesn’t really seem to mind either way. Louis’ got this sort-of dazed look in his eyes. Like when he showed Harry his ‘weed tree’. Which isn’t a tree that grows weed, it’s the tree he always sits in when he steals his father's cigarettes and smokes in. Harry had never smoked before, but he sort of wanted to at least try (A.N. I do not mean for this to promote smoking of any kind). Louis was already buzzed so he had no trouble asking if Harry wanted to shotgun. It was awkward until Harry felt light and they were both content with leaning close to each other, blowing smoke in between them. Harry thought things would be horrendously awkward between them but when he saw Louis the next day out of his window nothing had changed. Louis still kissed him on the cheek right before he went back to his room. He never leaves without giving him a small peck now. It’s not awkward anymore. Harry still loves it as much as he did the first time. Harry noticed that he’s strayed off of topic with his story and tries to recount back to where he was. He hears a violin starting to play and perks up.  
“What’s that?” He asks, Louis focuses on the noise before waving aimlessly,  
“That’s just me dad practicing, he does that when he’s done working sometimes. Says he needs to stay practiced.” Harry listens to it for a few moments,  
“It’s very nice.” Louis nods,  
“He takes some extra music sheets from the orchestra we host sometimes… for parties and all…” He says, peeling off paint on the gazebo. Harry stands,  
“Do you know how to dance, Louis?” Louis looks up, smirking.  
“Yes, I come from a family that hosts many balls, Harold. I do know how to dance.” Louis stands up.  
“Wonderful, because I don’t.” Harry says, Louis chuckles at that.  
“Would you like me to teach you, Harry?” Harry nods eagerly,  
“It might come in useful one day when wooing significant others.” Louis rolls his eyes,  
“You’re a charmer, I hardly think you need dance moves to woo someone.” Harry shakes off his blush and whines,  
“Come oonnn, Lou. Please?” Louis smiles and nods. Standing a bit closer,  
“Do you want me to lead first or what…?” He asks, Harry shakes his head,  
“I’ll learn faster if I lead… I think….” Harry smiles bashfully and Louis fondly rolls his eyes. Before taking Harry’s hand and guiding it to his hips. Harry’s breath stutters but he turns away to cough into his shoulder. His hands dwarf Louis waist and Louis’ hand cups around his neck and shoulders. Making a comfortable and yet uncomfortable position. Louis leads Harry’s other hand into his own and coughs awkwardly,  
“So, you just like…” Louis steps forward, clashing with Harry’s other foot,  
“Sorry,” Louis mumbles and Harry laughs a bit nervously, “So you just move your foot back when mine goes forward and vice versa….” They sway a bit awkwardly at first, then Harry starts getting it. They’re dancing around the gazebo, laughing at each other and listening to the violin. Eventually the sounds of the violin fade and cut short. They stop dancing gradually since Harry is busy memorising the curves of Louis’ beautiful face. When they stop they don’t untangle just yet. Because Harry’s leaning in ever so slightly and Louis wants to makes sure that he doesn’t let go of this opportunity. Until Harry’s watch beeps and they both jump, awkwardly letting go of each other.  
“Oh… I gotta get back before my mum yells at me….” Louis nods, a bit disappointed but smiles up at Harry nevertheless. Harry, however, doesn’t feel too good about the outcome. In fact, he really doesn’t like it at all. So halfway to his bike, (when he realises that Louis didn’t kiss his cheek either) he runs back. Startling Louis, grabbing his waist, and kisses him. There’s no protest though. And Harry’s almost breathless when Louis pulls away, giggling about how Harry hasn’t heard his watch beeping 3 more times. They both part smiling like idiots.  
______________________________________________________________  
Harry would be lying if he didn’t say that ever since he started meeting with Louis, he’d longed for this to happen. He throws the small rocks (an endless supply found in the outlining of their garden) and Louis climbs down. Immediately greeting him with a kiss. Harry blushingly tells Louis this, making him smile and kiss him again.   
“So…” Harry says after a few seconds of silence,  
“Yes we’re together you idiot.” Louis smiles and kisses him again.  
“Thank god,” Harry mumbles. Savouring the moment as Louis is called up quite urgently. Giving Harry the signature kiss on the cheek, climbing back up as fast as he can to answer his door. Wow, Harry could get used to this.  
______________________________________________________________  
Louis can’t say he expected this. Well, he expected something like this, but not… this. Louis’ father walked into the study hall (more like study room, his father likes to sound ‘grand’ or something) and asked Lottie,  
“Do you know the grocer, Anne Styles’ Son? I think his name’s Harry?” Lottie fought the urge to turn and look at Louis, shaking her head.  
“No…” She said, and it wasn’t necessarily a lie… She is well aware of the fact that Anne Styles’ son exists. She’s seen Louis climbing out his window enough times for that. But she hadn’t spoken to him at all. She should probably be getting on with talking to Louis about it, especially since they had kissed just the other day right in front of her window practically.  
“Really?” Her father asks, snapping her out of her thoughts.  
“Because I do believe that my guards have caught someone sneaking pasts the gates since last month, and recently he has been identified as Mr. Harry Styles.” _ugh, he’s got that pompous prick voice on again, like he ‘knows’ I’m lying_ Mr. Tomlinson turns to Louis, who quickly pretends he wasn’t panicking to death and looks back down at his paper. His father only turns to him briefly though, and is soon talking to Lottie once again.  
“So, do you have anything to say to that?” Lottie shook her head,  
“No.” She said definitely, Louis’ father raised an eyebrows but said nothing as he turned to walk out of the room. Louis watched him go before continuing to do his work. He was scribbling away at his paper when he heard the loud noise of a throat being cleared. He looks up to see Lottie raising her eyebrows at him,  
“What?” He asks, she scoffs,  
“What?” She mimics, turning her chair to face Louis, “I just partly lied to our dad to save your stupid relationship from being outed.” Louis’ jaw physically dropped,  
“I-” He said, then looked around and leaned in,   
“How do you know that?” Lottie groans,  
“Sometimes you can be so dense, you know that?” She punches his shoulder,  
“I saw you like, five times. One of them, being last night.” Louis blushes,  
“You didn’t even hesitate, you didn’t stumble, heck, you didn’t even check the windows. Like, damn, you must be so far gone I mean-”  
“Lotts.” Louis says, and she starts cackling,  
“I know.. but on a more serious note.” Louis looks down at his hands,  
“Have you told anyone?” Lottie asks softly, Louis laughs half-heartedly,  
“Apart from Harry? No.”   
“And me?” Lottie asks, Louis nods. Lottie gets up and sits next to him,  
“I’m glad I know, because I can tell you that it’s fine.” Louis smiles at his hands and glances up at her.  
“You could’ve like, actually told me or something. Maybe told your dear Harry that he needs to work on his sneaking a bit as well.” Louis chuckles, looking straight up at her as he asks,  
“So.. You’re okay with it?” Lottie furrows her eyebrows incredulously,  
“Of course!” She sighs, “You can be a bit thick sometimes you know?” Louis shoves her shoulder but doesn’t lose his grin.  
“Well….” Lottie asks, Louis hums, not looking up from where he’s started his work again. Lottie sighs,  
“Tell me about himmmmmm!” She whines, Louis tries to be annoyed at the subject of Harry, yet his face betrays him and breaks into a grin.  
“Ohmygosh, that’s so cute you’re blushing!” Louis shakes his head and tries to hide his face. Lottie, apparently is quite good at teasing.  
“Come onnnn, tell me about him! Please?” She asks, “I already know he’s amazing, and wonderful so it won’t hurt for you to say it yourself.” Louis keeps shaking his head, but when Lottie slumps back to stare expectantly at him he puts his pencil down.  
“Harry’s….” He starts, looking off to the corner of the room whilst he thinks. He scoffs,  
“He’s perfect,” Louis murmurs, causing Lottie to gasp and clutch her heart,  
“It’s too cute!!! My brother’s growing up so fast!” Louis shoves her again and she inches closer.  
“Who brought you together? Was it you? Was it Harry? It was probably Harry, no offense but you procrastinate like it’s nobody’s business.” Louis broke his smile to playfully frown at her for a few seconds,  
“It was both of us. Remember last time dad played his violin?” Lottie nodded,  
“Could hear it from the ruddy gateway basically, it was maybe… two nights ago?” Louis nods,  
“Then,” Lottie gapes,  
“No way! Only two days ago?” Louis nods, She shakes her head,  
“I don’t believe you… Last night, it looked so natural and… I don’t know are you sure you hadn’t been dating before?” Louis rolls his eyes,  
“Yes, I’m sure.” Louis picks up his pencil again when he sees the clock and estimates how far behind he’ll be if he doesn’t get cracking. Lottie stays sitting for a few moments before saying,  
“This must be really special.” A fluttery-pang sort of feeling hits Louis and he doesn’t know whether to feel scared or joyous. The conversation drops by itself.  
“Yeah…”   
______________________________________________________________  
“So, we’ve got most of your guest list picked out. You can just look through it and we’ll make suitable changes.” Amelia says, Louis smiles,  
“Thanks,” He says, Amelia pinches his nose,  
“You’re turning eighteen!!!” She says excitedly and Louis chuckles,  
“Yeah…” He said, Amelia hugs him tightly, then plops him down in front of the list.  
“Now, read. And if any of them are just people you’re expected to like, tell me. Because I am not having you act fake on your eighteenth.” Louis smiles. His dad’s girlfriend is pretty cool. She’s like, his age, without the age. _Youthful_ , he thinks before looking down through the list. Plenty of old people that have known him since he was little… There’s Zayn Malik, his best friend (or as best as you can get with a bi monthly meet-up), Liam Payne (He’s a genuine dude, Louis would gladly invite him), and plenty of more people he sees throughout the list. There are only a few minor problems on the list but two people confused/surprised him. The first was simply confusing,  
“Who’s ‘Eleanor Calder’?” Louis asks, Amelia looks up and smiles widely.  
“Oh, You’ll like her… she’s the _Duke’s daughter_.” Amelia says, Louis rolls his eyes,  
“I guess I can meet her.” Louis says, and continues. The second one is surprising, yet he isn’t very inclined to throw him off the list.  
“Harry Styles?” Louis asks, and Amelia nods,  
“Your father and I think that there’s something going on between him and Lottie? You haven’t seen anything have you?” Louis refrains from screaming out loud and settles for internal as he shrugs and turns back.  
“I think I’ve talked to him once or twice, he’s cool.” And he left it at that. _Harry’s coming to my eighteenth birthday party.._ Louis thinks, In front of virtually everyone he knows. Is this good… yes. Is this bad…. definitely.  
______________________________________________________________  
Okay, Louis did say that Harry coming to the party would be a bad idea. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t waiting for him to arrive. He smiled at the people he liked and cringed through conversations with relatives and family friends. His eyes couldn’t stop wandering to the door. _Where Harry might not even show_ , Louis keeps telling himself but whenever a new set of voices greet someone at the door, he near-spins around to see who’s come in. Obviously it goes noticed by both Amelia, and Lottie. Lottie walks up to him,  
“It’s fine, I’m sure he’ll come.” Louis shrugged,  
“I mean, it’s fine. I’m not that worried.” He says, Lottie gives him a ‘duh’ face,  
“As if I’m going to believe that. Relax, he hadn’t planned for months like the rest of these people.” Louis nods slightly and stands up a bit straighter when Amelia calls his name.   
“Louis!” She sings out and he turns to see Amelia walking his way with a girl his age.  
“This is Eleanor Calder, the Duke's daughter.” Amelia says, Louis’ eyes widen with recognition.  
“Oh! Yes, Eleanor. Hello.” He says, sticking out his hand. Eleanor holds out her hand, with her palm facing downwards, not to the side and Louis has to go on his instincts to realise that he’s supposed to kiss her hand. He does so and stands a bit more rigid when he takes her father's title into account.  
“So.. Louis,” Amelia starts, “Would you mind taking Eleanor here and showing her around?” Louis nodded,  
“Sure,” He said, glancing up at the door one last time before gesturing for Eleanor to follow him. He’d show her the gardens first, since they’ll have plenty of time to see the sights and then migrate indoors for dinner. It’ll make much more sense to- _Oh dear no she’s taking my elbow._ Louis thinks and pulls a smile onto his face. Awkwardly pulling her along. _This is not right this does not feel right what is going on?_ then it all comes into focus. How could he have been so stupid? She’s from a highly respectable family and she’s even more rich than his family is. It makes perfect sense for him to marry her. But no. No no no no no. Louis can’t marry her. He wouldn’t even be able to date her. It’s wrong. Even if he wasn’t already with Harry, it wouldn’t be…. right. Louis knew he wasn’t making any sense and managed to stop any thoughts from his head come tumbling out as he reached the garden.  
“So this is the garden, well- no. Well- yes it is the garden, and it is also _the garden_.” Louis gestures to the field of many flowers right outside the veranda. “But, the whole thing isn’t a _garden _the rest of it just a garden…” Louis trails off, not knowing how to put it. He cringes when he hears Eleanor laugh really loudly.  
“Oh my _goodness_ you’re so funny. I love it!” Louis smiles slightly at her before looking around for something else to show her.  
“Ah yes, do you like horses?” Eleanor shakes her head,  
“They smell really really bad, I mean, have you ever tried to walk through their houses?” Louis’ screaming on the inside,  
“Stables, they’re called stables. And yeah, we’ve got some right over there. We don’t really need to go if you…” Louis’ eyes wander off and meet with bright green ones. His faces breaks into a smile at the sight of Harry, falling once again when he sees that Harry’s seen Eleanor’s arm still in place alongside his.  
“Hold on, one moment.” Louis says to Eleanor and subtly, but firmly untangles himself. Walking a bit fast over to where Harry is.  
“Hey,” Louis says fondly, Harry smiles at him,  
“Hey, you know you didn’t have to come over here and talked to me.” Louis shook his head,  
“Of course I did, now where’s Lottie? I know that she’s not dumb or mean enough to leave you by yourself.” Harry gestures inside,  
“Drinks, would you and your date like one?” Louis notices Harry’s eye wavering a bit and Louis brushes his fingers ever so lightly against Harry’s, as to not have people notice.  
“Haz, she’s not my date. She’s the duke’s daughter. My parents probably think I should marry her or somewhat. But…” He looks around,  
“She seems like an absolute pain.” Harry nods glumly,  
“Dukes daughter…” He mumbles, shakes himself out of it and shrugs,  
“Would she like a drink though?” Louis looks around at Eleanor, who has been standing with a bunch of older men, listening to talk about politics or whatever failing to look like she’s interested.  
“I don’t really know…” Eleanor notices him looking and smiles ( _annoyingly_ ), basically skipping her way over.  
“Hello Louis, who on earth this?” Louis steps back and says,  
“Eleanor, this is Harry Styles.” Harry smiles and sticks out his hand. To be greeted, like Louis, with Eleanor’s palm facing downwards. Harry is much less hesitant than Louis when he stoops down to kiss her hand. Louis almost growls.  
“Well!” He says, clapping his hands together. “Would you like drinks?” He asks Eleanor.  
“Got them!” Lottie says out of nowhere. Coming along with four drinks,  
“Well, aren’t you prepared Lotts?” Louis asks, Lottie shrugs,  
“You know me,” She says, cocking her head a bit. She looks at Eleanor to hand her her drink,  
“Hi! I’m Lottie Tomlinson, Louis’ sister. Second oldest kid, first oldest girl. You must be Eleanor?” She holds out her hand, Eleanor shakes it slowly.  
“Yes…” She says, a bit skeptical about Lottie’s unsophisticated demeanour. Louis sighs,  
“Should we look around? I don’t think Harry or Eleanor’s seen the garden yet?” Lottie snorts but Louis gives her a cold stare. Eleanor clearly doesn’t notice because she agrees quickly and they all walk off together.  
______________________________________________________________  
Louis hadn’t been so anxious to get rid of someone in his entire life. Not only was Eleanor ‘fake as fuck’ (Lottie’s words), she also sneered when she realised that Harry wasn’t as wealthy as most of the people here. He jumped at the chance to tell her it was time to go right after dinner and soon she was off. No one had really noticed her absence, and they certainly didn’t notice the absence of the birthday boy and the telegram deliverer. They were up in the ‘weed tree’. Snogging, to be exact. Giggling and messing around with Harry was much better than anything else his birthday had to offer to be honest. Especially when Harry kissed him slowly,  
“Happy Birthday,” He said, and Louis most certainly was.  
______________________________________________________________  
“Louis! Where have you been?” His father asks, Louis looks up, a bit dazed from running back (more dazed from being with Harry before running back but we don’t need to go into detail about that), and shrugs.  
“It’s nothing, I was just-”   
“No need to explain, Louis.” Amelia says, his father turns to her and sits back down at the table.  
“We just have some things to discuss with you.” Louis furrows his eyebrows,  
“Okay…” He says, sitting down on the edge of a seat at the table. His parents never really ‘discussed’ things with him. More like, run them through with him or rolled them by him or something. And they most certainly did not tell him that they were going to be discussing something.  
“Well, as you know, Miss Eleanor Calder” (Louis braces himself for the end of the sentence) “attends the Lakewater University School.” Louis nods along to what his father’s saying,  
“And since we see that it could be highly beneficial to your studies, and that Miss Calder can assist you in making friends. We have enrolled you into this school.” It takes a few moments for the words to settle in. When they do, it’s not pretty.  
“What!?” He yells, standing up from the chair in a flash. His father and Amelia furrow their eyebrows.  
“What’s wrong, Louis?” Amelia asks. Louis looks incredulously at her.  
“What’s wrong?” He asks, “What’s wrong is that I don’t want to go to some posh boarding school!” He yells,  
“You certainly can’t make me.” He finishes, his father once again, tries to reason with him,  
“It’s the best for your education..”  
“Screw the bloody education!” Amelia and his dad have an intake of breath at that. “It’s most certainly not good for my sanity! Everything I know is here! I can’t just be whisked off to some college full of people I don’t know!”   
“You know Eleanor.” Amelia says and Louis is fuming,  
“Eleanor. Of course, this is all about Eleanor isn’t it” His father stands up,  
“What are you insinuating, Louis?” He says lowly, Louis really doesn’t give a damn,  
“I get it that she’s rich, and posh, and girly and whatever. Duke’s daughter bullshit. But she’s god awful and I’m not marrying her.” Amelia stands as well,  
“We’re not trying to get you to marry her.” Her demeanour betrays her, she’s being too gentle, too persuasive. She’s not trying to calm him down, she’s trying to change his mind.  
“I sure hope you’re not because I’m not doing it.” He goes to leave,  
“And I’m not going to the goddamn school!” He walks past most of his sisters listening behind the stairs,  
“Get up.” He says and they all scramble. Fizzy walks up,  
“It’s okay Louis, maybe it’ll be fun.”  
“Stop it, Fiz.” Both Louis and Lottie say at the same time. They look at each other and Louis knows that she understands. That doesn’t mean he wants to talk. He climbs the stairs twice at a time and locks his door seconds before Lottie’s banging on it.  
“Louis!” She says,  
“Go away.” He says, sitting on his bed. There’s silence, and Louis thinks that she’s actually gone away. But a few minutes later there’s more knocking,  
“Go awAy.” He says again,  
“I have brownies.” He frowns and gets up to walk to the door,  
“with salted caramel?” He asks,  
“Of course,” She says and he opens the door. Lottie smirks and walks in before giving him the brownies.  
“Now, would you like to eat first, talk first, or do both.”  
“Both.” Louis says immediately, taking one and laying back down on the bed.  
“How much did you hear?” Louis asks, Lottie shrugs,  
“Something about how Eleanor’s awful and a school.” Louis sighs,  
“They signed me up for bloody Lakewater school.” Lottie scowls,  
“Already signed you up? Like, no getting out of it?” Louis sits up,  
“By golly, I’ll try.” Eleanor sighs,  
“Louis…”  
“I know. Okay?” He looks up, “There are only two holidays and I can’t come back for weekends because it’s too far away. Do you realise how much this fucks my life up?” Lottie pushes more brownies towards him. Louis takes about 4. There are a few moments of quiet (safe for Louis gobbling brownies) before Lottie takes a breath,  
“You’re gonna have to tell Harry sooner rather than later.” Louis groans and puts his head in his hands.  
“I-.” He takes his hands away, sighing “I don’t want to go.” He almost whines as he says it. He knows he’s throwing a sissy fit but his life is practically perfect and now he’s got to leave home, he’s got to leave this life. He’s got to leave Harry. Lottie holds her arms out. Louis at first just frowns at her, eventually he gives up and wraps his arms around his sister. If he cries, it’s between them.  
______________________________________________________________  
“Hello? Hi? Yeah, is it possible for me to speak to someone regarding the position in school of one Mr. Louis Tomlinson?” Lottie asks, she’s standing at the nearest telephone booth to the park, keeping an eye out for her siblings while she negotiates the deal of her brothers education. Her father would most certainly not approve of this, partly because she was using her pocket money to call a school that was miles away. Mainly because she was trying to pull her brother out of school. His education had nothing to do with it, he was a fairly intelligent person (as much as Lottie hates to say it). But Harry’s not happy, Louis’ not happy (based on the letters she’s been getting), none of Lottie’s sister’s are happy, and Lottie most certainly isn’t happy.  
“Hello, this is the principal Mr. Davies, what can I do for you?” Lottie was a bit shocked that she’d be talking to Mr. Davies himself but she couldn’t be deterred,  
“Yes, hello sir. I am here to ask about pulling Louis Tomlinson out of his part in school.”  
“And why might this be, Miss…?” Lottie’s mind blanked for a bit,  
“Miss Tricket. please. And it is because I have been asked by Master Tomlinson’s father to do this. The reasons were a bit hazy but I do recall him talking about a family situation so I don’t think he’d be very comfortable talking about it.” There was a slight hum and a silence on the other end for a few seconds.  
“Very well, if it is family issues I’ll help Mark out as much as I can. I shall send out the papers to Mr. Tomlinson during the next break. I believe it is the half term? I am very sorry to leave you at this point Miss Tricket, but I have a board meeting to supervise in only a few minutes so it was very nice talking to you.” And the line went dead. Lottie stood there in silence and shock. _Well,_ She thought, _Pros, I have gotten the principal to believe that Louis should be pulled out of school. Cons, the papers are gonna be sent to father. How is he gonna take the news?_ Lottie then remembered, that he was going to have to find out at SOME POINT and that speeding it up wouldn’t make too much damage. She would still be blamed though. _Who cares?_ she thought, _I tried, and I tried for Louis. It’s fine._ She heard quite a loud scream and raced off to check on her sisters. They were fine, just being their normal loud selves.  
“Lottie!!!! Play with us!!!!!” Daisy shouted and Lottie smiled, racing into the sandbox to help her with the castles. Everything will probably be maybe okay.  
______________________________________________________________   
It took a lot of power in Louis not to run straight to Harry’s shop after he got off the train. But Amelia had just gotten back from a trip (while he was at school) with Uncle James! Uncle James was quite a popular person in the Tomlinson household due to his similarities in wealth, and differences with the spending of said wealth. Uncle James was single, and deemed ‘funner’ by Daisy and Phoebe.  
“Louis! My boy!” Louis couldn’t help but smile when he heard the familiar booming voice of his Uncle.  
“Uncle James.” He looks Louis up and down,  
“My, you’re almost as tall as me. You’ll have to start calling me just James.”  
“Alright, Just James.” Louis says, James laughs and pulls Louis into a hug.  
“Louislouislouislouis-” His sisters say and run up to him,  
“Look look, Uncle James is here!” Daisy says, Louis nods,  
“Yeah! I saw,”   
“He said he’s gonna take us to the arcade in the town really really far away!” Louis’ stomach clenched a bit but he plastered a smile on his face.  
“Really?” He asked, (a bit meekly), and looked up at James. James looked back with a slightly confused look,  
“Yes, you haven’t been there in a while have you?” Now, Louis didn’t have anything wrong with the arcade over in the next town. But that’s an hours drive there, three or more hours in the town, and an hours drive back. That’s more than 5 hours, maybe a day without seeing Harry again. Call him clingy or whatever but he barely had any time to spend with Harry before he left. Other than that night… Louis thought, and almost blushed bright red until Lottie stepped up and said,  
“I was thinking we could invite Harry? He’s back isn’t he?” Louis snapped his head a tad bit too fast,  
“Really?” He asked, Lottie nodded and cleared her throat, telling him to be cool about it. Louis shakes himself out of it. _What the heck am I doing?_ He turns to Uncle James,  
“Who’s Harry?” He asks,   
“He’s the son of Anne Styles in the grocery store, I met him a month or so ago.” Louis says quickly, trying to keep it a buddy-bro-pal tone to his voice. Uncle James misses a beat before nodding slowly,  
“Okay, I guess so, we’re taking multiple cars anyway.” Louis tries to manage the smile about to split his face. To be perfectly clear, he _does_ want to jump into Harry's arms and kiss him senseless. But, of course, he hasn’t seen his Uncle in a ages and most definitely doesn’t know his views of homosexuals. _I don’t care_ Louis thinks, just seeing Harry and maybe some fleeting grazes of fingertips is good enough. He pulls out his phone,  
“Already done it,” Lottie says, and Louis smiles  
“Did you plan this?” He asks quietly, glancing over to where Uncle James was talking with the rest of his siblings,  
“Perhaps, but this isn’t the only thing I planned.” Louis’ about to ask what she’s talking about but they’re all called to the car where they’ll be dropping Louis off to change an put his stuff away/waiting for Harry. _Whatever,_ he thinks, _I’ll find out sooner or later_  
______________________________________________________________   
James knows something’s up. Maybe it was before he met Harry, or maybe after he had witnessed Louis and Harry meeting again. But James knew something was up. There was no need for assumptions yet, the way their eyes had lit up and the subtle gravitation towards one another could be overlooked. But as the day went on, James started to notice small things that Louis and Harry were both doing. It was absolutely none of James’ business if Louis was gay, he’d like to know if he was but sometimes it’s pretty safe to just butt out of other people’s business. This was one of those times…. James was never a good secret-keeper. _I’ll just ask his father,_ he thinks, _that’ll be fine, right?_ When he catches them staring at each other across the arcade ( _for the fourth bloody time_ ), it seals the deal. He was probably doing the right thing.  
He was not doing the right thing,  
“What?” James’ soon-to-be brother-in-law, Mark exclaimed (a tad bit louder than James had expected, which is probably how he knew something was up),  
“I mean, I just noticed a few things… Between him and Harry?” James asked meekly, he hadn’t meant for this to be a surprise at all.  
“I thought Harry liked Lottie?” Amelia said, speaking up for once. James shook his head,  
“Lottie barely glanced at Harry.” Amelia turned to Mark, who was crossing his arms.  
“It would make a bit more sense…” Amelia murmured.  
“How’d you mean?” James asked, she turned onto him.  
“Well, Harry had been sneaking into the estate every now and then for the past month… we thought he was coming to see Lottie and asked her about it but she seemed not to know him…” Mark spoke up,  
“But she was lying, I could tell.”  
“Perhaps she was lying because she knew about Louis…” Amelia said lightly as James surveyed the look on Mark’s face.  
“Mark, you are… okay with it… right?” Mark looked up in a flash,  
“I- Well, yes. Of course, but…” He ran a hand through his hair,  
“We sent him off to the school with Eleanor and….” James laughed a bit,  
“What?” Amelia and Mark asked at the same time,  
“Well, if they were away for so long I can see why they wouldn’t be so subtle.” Amelia smiled a bit sadly,  
“I was wondering why he wanted to stay so badly…” She sighs, “How on earth are we supposed to cancel now?” Mark stands up,  
“I’ll call the school,” Both James and Amelia furrow their eyebrows,  
“Now?” They ask in unison,  
“Yes, now.” Mark says and picks up the phone, dialling the number.  
“Hello?” Morris Davies picked up,  
“Hello! Mr. Davies.” He answered quickly,  
“Yes, Mr. Tomlinson. What can I do for you?” Mark hesitated,  
“Is there any way I would be able to pull Louis out of school?” He asked lightly, a bit cautious,  
“Not to worry, Mr. Tomlinson. Ms. Trinket has already notified me of the family issues. You won’t need to go anywhere, the paperwork should reach your house any day now.” Mark furrows his eyebrows,  
“I’m sorry, who notified you?” There’s a moment of silence,  
“Ms. Trinket? Oh, sorry. Ms. Tricket. And is she your secretary? Housemaid, perhaps?” _Ms. Tricket, the nannie in the stories that Lottie used to tell me_ , Mark smiles at the cheekiness of his oldest daughter.  
“Oh yes, she’s a doll. Anyways, I hope everything’s going well, I need to get back now. Thank you, Morris!” Mr. Davies thanks him and he hangs up. Mark smiles at his new fiance,  
“We have one smart daughter, she’s already handled everything.” Amelia furrows her eyebrows,  
“Lottie? Lottie pulled Louis out of school?” James smiled,  
“I think Harry and Louis wouldn’t get anywhere if it weren’t for Lottie.” Mark smiles,  
“We’ve got to talk to him you know.” Amelia brings up, Mark nods.  
“Of course, when though?” James cuts in,  
“As soon as we can, maybe tonight. There’s no use in delaying it?” Mark agrees and Amelia sighs and stands up.  
“If it’s not much trouble, I would like to be the one doing the talking Because knowing you two, you can be a tad bit obvious.” Both James and Mark immediately disagree, causing Amelia to smile and walk out the room calmly. _No matter what, I am so proud of Louis._  
______________________________________________________________   
_Oh no_ , Louis thinks. He’s just been asked by his parents to come into the dining room again.   
“We have to discuss something with you.” _Again_ , Louis almost says. He holds his breath when he sits down at the table. This time, Uncle James is there as well.  
“Yes?” He asks, Amelia starts off. Louis braces himself, and…  
“Your position at Lakewater has been resigned.” Louis is silent, he was expecting something a bit more catastrophic than that. But _wow._  
“Really!?” He asks, then puts a hand to his mouth at how he sounds too excited. Amelia laughs,  
“Yes,” She says, “Lottie had given us a thorough idea of the letters you’d been sending her per month and how you feel about the school.” Louis laughs,  
“She also took it upon herself to cancel your position herself under the name of Ms. Tricket, our secretary-type-thing.” Louis smiles not so secretly.  
“So I can go back to homeschooling?” Amelia nods, and there’s a silence. Uncle James nudges Amelia.  
“Go on,” Louis furrow his eyebrows when Amelia takes a breath.  
“Louis, we understand that you didn’t like Eleanor…” Louis nods, “And I have to admit, we were hoping that you would develop some kind of relationship.” Louis snorts, almost in sync with Uncle James.  
“That didn’t work out.” He said,  
“And it couldn’t’ve.” His father speaks up for the first time. Louis nods, then turns to him and pulls a confused face.  
“What?” _Why?_ He thinks, what did his parents think?  
“You couldn’t have liked Miss Calder.” Uncle James says, Louis’ heart starts to speed up. _They can’t have…. No- Lottie wouldn’t rat him out. Of course not. And they hadn’t realised for ages, how could they see his relationship now?_  
“Sh, you guys are way too forward.” Amelia says (not quiet enough so that Louis hears, which does nothing to settle his nerves),  
“Louis, we-”   
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, Sis!” Uncle James says, he looks at Louis.  
“Your boyfriend is Harry, right?” Many things occurred in the few seconds that followed. Louis’ heart stopped, Louis’ father hit Uncle James at the back of the head and Amelia buried her face in her hands.  
“This is exactly why I didn’t want-”  
“What?” Louis asks, cutting Amelia off. His voice is lighter than it usually is, Louis clears his throat, but it makes a horrid noise that has Amelia starting to panic.  
“Louis, Louis.” She says, reaching out to grab his hand. “We are not angry, at all. We just need you to tell us.” Louis looks up at his father and Uncle who are looking back at him expectantly. Amelia’s hand is drawing circles on the back of his and he pulls away softly to put his arms on the table and hide his face.  
“Yeah,” he murmurs. He hears Amelia take in a breath,  
“Yes?” She asks, he nods. Then feels the familiar arms around him and leans into it. HIs eyes start welling up, he isn’t sad.. he’s just overwhelmed. It’s sudden and unexpected, and so so wonderful. The strong arms of his father join in and he tries to calm down. The words of his father break his facade of ‘tough’ when he says,  
“It’s okay.” He almost laughs at how he knows he looks when he’s bawling his eyes out and saying,  
“I am okay.” and does when he sees the confused look of his Uncle.  
“I’m okay…” He repeats and rubs his eyes harshly, his dad and Amelia let go of him. He shakes his head slightly,  
“Woah,” he laughs a bit. Then Amelia is suddenly all over him,  
“So what’s he like? Harry? I want to know.” Uncle James puts his hands up,  
“Aaaand that’s my cue to leave, Mark?” He asks, Louis’ father casts one more look at Louis. He’s smiling genuinely and Louis feels warm. It’s a very important thing, supportive parents, however little or big you might think it. Mark walks out and Louis groans,  
“Do I have to?” Amelia looks playfully-offended,  
“Of course you do! I want to know _everything_.” Louis pretends to sigh and roll his eyes but he’s smiling widely as he retells the stories of Harry and if he lets slip that he’s maybe falling in love than he neither remembers saying it, nor Amelia commenting.  
______________________________________________________________   
“Harry, please calm down…” Louis says, smiling warmly at his boyfriend.  
“What? I am calm.” Louis raises an eyebrows,  
“You’ve been pacing the room for ten minutes.” He gets up from sitting on Harry’s bed and walks over.  
“It’s gonna be fine.” He gives Harry a small peck,  
“They’re gonna love you.” Harry sighs, looking over into the mirror. Reflexively fixing his collar until Louis bats his hands away to do it himself.  
“See?” He says, twiddling it a bit, “Very handsome.” and pulls him down for a longer kiss. Harry’s watch beeps and he almost jumps,  
“Yes, it is time to go. Let’s be calm.” Louis smiles when Harry laughs and bit and calms down, taking Louis hand and letting him pull Harry out the door. They walk in silence, Louis lightly brushing his thumb along the outside of Harry’s hand to calm him down.  
“I’m pretty sure I should be more worried than you.” Louis says suddenly,  
“Why?” Harry asks, Louis sighs,  
“Because every single member of my family has at least ten embarrassing stories of me to share at their pleasure.”  
By the end of the dinner, Louis’ assumptions had been long-proved correct. Harry’s laughing with the rest of his family about his six-year-old self and numerous stories about their huge garden that Louis just couldn’t stay out of.  
“Mum….” Louis murmurs, not missing the smile that comes to Amelia’s face whenever he calls her that. The news of their engagement had settled in not long after the news of Harry and Louis. Uncle James thinks of it as ‘too much love in the house, it’s disgusting’. Louis doesn’t get Harry alone until their sitting on the veranda outside. Waiting for Uncle James to bring some drinks and chat with Harry more about their shared love with plants (James is a botanist). Louis climbs right into Harry's lap,  
“What are you doing?” Harry asks softly, his words contrasting with the movement of his hands steadying Louis’ waist.  
“I’m happy.” Louis says, kissing Harry softly. Harry smiles,  
“I am too…” Louis breaks apart and traces Harry’s cheek a bit before murmuring,  
“I really love you…” Saying out loud causes a virtual ‘dam’ to break in himself and a rush feeling shoots out. It’s an incredibly odd mixture of love, hope and fear of rejection, and shock. He hasn’t quite figured out whether it’s a good or bad feeling. Harry looks about as shocked as he is but with a soft hand on his cheek. He’s kissing Louis again and whispering it back,  
“I love you too,” they smile and laugh at each other, “So much” Harry adds on, Louis can’t convey how happy he is. In a way, staring at each other seems to do the trick. Until they hear a noise of fond disgust, causing Louis to scramble off of Harry and bashfully smile at his Uncle.  
“Sorry…” He says, moving on to help his mother with the dishes. Harry watches him go,  
“I’ve seen this before…” Harry whips his head around to James,  
“What?” James is smiling widely,  
“It’s the same exact look with ‘Melia and Mark.” He puts his drink on the table and hands another to Harry.  
“You’re in love.” Harry nods almost immediately and turns to look back and Louis leaving. As if he sense it, Louis turns back and blows a kiss to Harry. Harry cheesily pretends to catch it and hold it to his heart. Louis’ laugh rings out and he turns to enter the kitchen.  
“Louis’d better hold onto you. And you need to promise that you’ll never let Louis down?” Harry stares out at the gazebo, his inside fluttering as he smiles.  
“Never.” Harry says, and clinks his glass with James. Launching into their discussion.  
______________________________________________________________  
“School isn’t that important for them, Louis!” Harry exclaims, his husband shakes his head.  
“I am not changing my mind, Harold.” Louis says, Harry grabs the phone and holds it above his head.  
“You’re such a cheater!” Louis says and grasps for it.  
“No! I was in school and I’d never wish it on my children!” He says defiantly,  
“ _Our children_ , Harold.” Louis face splits into a reflexive grin, “And they need to be able to interact with other children, and we can only make sure of that if we send them to school!” There’s a small voice from the corner and both husbands turn to look at the dining room door.  
“Papa?” Darcy asks, her twin, Leo, is standing next to her.  
“Yes?” Harry asks, causing his arm to lower and Louis seizes the opportunity to grab the phone.  
“Can we have a bedtime story?” Harry nods,  
“I’ll be there in a second, love.” They nod and disappear around the corner, Darcy grabbing Leo’s hand.  
“I used to be love.” Louis says, Harry sighs.  
“Yes, but now we have children together.” Harry turns to see Louis smiling at him softly,  
“Yeah,” He murmurs, walking up to kiss Harry again.  
“Let’s decide in the morning, okay?” Louis nods,   
“Go read your kids a bedtime story, Harold. I’ll be waiting in bed.” Harry smiles and goes to their tall bookshelf to pick out a story. How did his life get so amazing by running into a pole, staring at the most beautiful person in the universe. As Harry watches him go, he fiddles with his ring. He scoffs at his memory of when they met, _This is definitely would Harry’s heaven would be.___


End file.
